To be worried about my indefinite leave to remain. Should I get British citizenship?

[Milliemoons]

I know it hasn’t happened yet and may not happen. But I’m worried about the security of my indefinite leave to remain. Anyone else out there? Or am I worried about nothing? I understand that legally they cannot really do much to jeopardise the status of people who have acquired legal settled status already but I’m worried more about pressure and complications should anything change.

I was born in the UK and have always lived here, except for 4 years as a child in my parents’ home country. I have the same citizenship as my parents because originally as a child you had to be on a parent’s passport. I think I therefore have easy-ish access to British citizenship but it’s not something I ever imagined applying for.

I too find it a bit unusual you don’t already have it. Most of my friends are first gen immigrants and I’m married to one. All have British passports, sometimes alongside another, bar one (who is American and has only her US citizenship). You definitely should apply.

Is a British passport considered citizenship?

I suspect this business by Reform is not really feasible, but it is a reasonable time to think about things like this.

In many cases if you plan to stay in a country long term I think it's a good idea to apply for citizenship. Circumstances can vary a lot of course. But in your case OP I absolutely would, you can never guarantee an absolute right to stay without it, no matter what the law says at a given time. And it doesn't seem like you would realistically want to go live elsewhere.

I read that people with ILR from some Commonwealth countries are allowed to vote in GE.
I am 100% sure EU nationals cannot.

Ah, thankyou Kelticgold.

I have not broken the law.

My idl was given through association with a commonwealth country.

My home country doesn't allow dual citizenship. I do have settled status under the European settlement scheme (non eu national but british dh lived in a European country with me and we exercised freedom of movement) which farage has ruled out touching. The government of my home country is extremely strict about dual citizenship, you are made to declare you have no other citizenship when renewing your passport

Some countries don't allow dual citizenship, so getting British citizenship would mean renouncing theirs. This may not apply to the OP, but for some people this would be a difficult decision, as they could face restrictions in visiting relatives in that country or moving there, possibly many years from now e.g. in retirement.

ETA - as above! 🤭

Are you a Commonwealth citizen? PP pointed out that they can vote in general elections.

not true.
commonwealth citizens can vote in all UK elections

You don’t have to renounce citizenship - just don’t tell the other country!

Unless from a country who is in the Commonwealth - they can vote.

When I worked in Nationality a rather irate German woman shouting at me over the phone because she had gone to vote in a GE and they wouldn’t let her. She was even more irate when I told her they were correct - she didn’t even have ILR as, at that time, members of the EU weren’t required to have it

For any europeans who have settled status and are wondering about british citizenship pleaser note that it would be politically and legally far more difficult to revoke settled status than to deprive a naturalised citizen of their citizenship. Revoking settled status would require repealing the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, which is an international treaty. Depriving a naturalised citizen of their citizenship, though rare, is already possible under UK law.

What about for non eu citizens who have settled status under the European settlement scheme. As the eu settlement scheme also offered status to non European dependents. Would it be possible to revoke status of the non Europeans but maintain status for the Europeans though I guess the withdrawal agreement also applied to non Europeans.

Honestly I don't know.

As it has been mentioned above, the issue with EU citizens is the threat of removing access to ‘benefits’.
As benefits are now starting to include pensions, you can see how someone who has spent their whole working life in the U.K. would be worried….
Theres also the ‘slight’ issue of the NHS etc…

Its not just about being able to stay in the country.

I have to declare every single time I renew my passport and ID card that I have another citizenship.

Sure, I could lie but it's an official government document I am signing, not recommended that you lie.
No idea what could happen but it may be that they strip you by default when they find out.

It's a fairly naive opinion.

My friend says if that happens she will just go back to Belgium as they will have to deal with her then despite her never paying a penny in tax to them

So, lots of people on here are surprised you've not applied but I get it. I

• like many, many of my fellow 'nationals' - have settled status and never really saw the need before Brexit to apply for British citizenship as you had the same rights. Been toying with the idea since but it's expensive and a bit cumbersome.

But now, with Conservatives also mentioning it I'm thinking I really should do. I wonder if they realise that it may be they can never force this through but they will have a lot of people applying - that will be costly and take up a lot of the processing people's time.

For what it's worth, I arrived aged 20, competed my degree and post-grad here and have paid (a lot!) of taxes since (i.e. over 35 years) as a high earner and not claimed any benefits. It seems crazy that they might revoke it and I think with the Brexit agreement, in principle settled status should be safe but I don't trust anything anymore.

To anyone else they'd think I'm British. I'm also heavily involved in the community and most of my friends are English.

Crazy, scary world!

https://www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/they-will-also-need-to-go-home?triedRedirect=true